The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has issued a positive opinion to EDF to extend the useful life of reactor number 1 at the Tricastin (Drôme) plant by ten years, for the first time beyond 40 years for the fleet. to an opinion that AFP learned of on Monday.
In 2021, ASN ruled on the generic phase of the fourth periodic review of 900 MW reactors, such as those of Tricastin, “which focused on the points common to all these reactors,” he recalls in this opinion. Thus, the ASN had “considered that all the provisions provided for by EDF and those that it had prescribed opened the perspective that these reactors would continue in operation during the ten years following their fourth periodic review”.
Following a specific in-depth review of the Tricastin reactor, “ASN considers that the conclusions of the fourth periodic safety review of the reactor, the actions planned by EDF and those adopted in response to ASN’s decision (…) allow reaching the objectives set for this periodic review”, indicates the ASN in this opinion, confirming information revealed by the echoes.
The ASN opinion “indicates that the reactor can continue to operate until its next review” and, therefore, its next ten-year visit, Yves Guannel, head of the office for “attack and security reviews” told AFP. of the management of the ASN nuclear power plant.
Program “big fairing”
This prolongation of this yield possible for the workloads of the EDF in the cadre de son program “Grand carénage”, mené depuis 2014 to renew the parc nucléaire français and increase the level of security of the réacteurs in order to poursuivre leur exploitation significantly au-delà de 40 years.
However, it acquires a particular resonance, a few months after the announcement by the Élysée of the “launch of studies to prepare the extension of the useful life of existing power plants to 60 years and more”, pending the construction of reactors New generation EPR2. .
The bill for the “great fairing”, a program to modernize and extend the useful life of power plants beyond 40 years, is estimated at around 66,000 million euros. The government is also carrying out a program of six to 14 EPR reactors, estimated at $51.7 billion for the first six.
Source: BFM TV
